I Don't Know About That - Earthquakes

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

In this episode, the team discusses earthquakes with professor of civil and environmental engineering in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, Jonathan Stewart. Go to samueli.ucla.edu to lear more! Our merch store is now live! Go to idontknowaboutthat.com for shirts, hoodies, mugs, and more! Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/IDKAT for ad free episodes, bonus episodes, and more exclusive perks! Tiers start at just $2! Go to JimJefferies.com to buy tickets to Jim's upcoming tour, The Moist Tour.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

yesterday today tomorrow but the day after tomorrow is it called the day after tomorrow or is it called tomorrow tomorrow you might find out I don't know about that

tomorrow tomorrow yesterday yesterday it's two days ago. Yeah. We used to call it double yesterday growing up. Did you? Yeah. Double tomorrow, double yesterday. How old were you when you called it that? Maybe like eight. Twenty-two. Last week. Can I get another Red Bull?

I'm Red Bull-ist in a Red Bull world. Liam Gallagher upset me this morning. What did he do now? He said on Twitter that he's no longer interested in Oasis ever getting back together. I think because his career is so big, I think he's shitting on his brother again. That's the problem with those two.

He's always like, yeah, get the band back together, man. Get the band back together. And he's like, you look like a fucking potato. And you're just like, well, he's not going to, thank you, man. He's not going to bank the band again now. You fucked it up. Every now and again, I can tell Liam's's a shit stirrer you can tell now he's a shit stirrer it seems to be all he doesn't seem as grumpy as no he was the one that was on the show no no no was on the show

that was one of the the highlights of my life interviewing no galling i had such a good time i loved it were you nervous to meet him? I was more nervous when I interviewed Brad, I was nervous. I fucked that up a little bit. Interviewing Noel, no, I had the question. I knew everything about the guy. I was

prepared. I'd been told that he knew who I was so that made it a little bit less daunting. He'd watched a bit of my comedy. Yeah, it's the worst when somebody's there and you feel like they're begrudgingly there. I met Liam once and I was outside a gig and he was leaving his gig

and I went, Liam, I'm a big fan. He goes, oh, man, you're the fucking guy who does the jokes about drinking. And I said, I do. That's me. I do. He goes, yeah, fucking drinking. He goes said, I do. I do. He goes, yeah, fucking drinking.

He goes, solid, man, fucking solid. That's sick. And I was like, I've got other jokes. I'd also do jokes about drugs.

You see those. Pretty cool. What's going on this week? Yeah. We've got gigs coming up. We're going to be in. Well, let me tell you where you're going to be. Durham.

Charlotte. Now, I think. Atlanta. Wait. Hold on. This episode, you would have already done those. Mississippi. No.

Minnesota. I love Mississippi, though. It's Mississippi and Minneapolis. Shut up. It's called Mississippi. You've already done the Durham gigs. You've just done the Durham gigs. You've just done the Durham gigs. Oh,

they were good gigs. You're going to be in Victoria, Canada at the save on foods, Memorial. Save on foods, Memorial center. I'll tell you what, um,

the, the, all the people of Toronto who have bought special, um, tickets to see the special recording, both of the shows that recording, um, have been sold out and we've added another show, which is good. I get a feel for the theater the night before. Yeah been sold out and we've added another show

which is good i'll get a feel for the theater the night before yeah the day before we've added another show so you can come and see that one and also the good thing about that one is i'll probably run like an hour and a half material versus the one hour you get for the special you know uh september 22nd save on foods memorial center in victoria canada september 23rd paramount theater seattle washington two shows there we added a show in seattle i i didn't even know about this it's like one of those things my agents just went oh it was showed up on my social media i'll go i guess i'm doing another show so i didn't even know that one sold out so thanks seattle and then but the second show has some tickets to move so

go to the second the added show september 24th the keller auditorium in portland oregon that one's going to sell out as well. There you go. And then a couple weeks after that, you can start, you should promote these two, St. Louis and Nashville, October 17th.

Yeah, they still got tickets, but a long way out. Not that far. Yeah, they'll be good shows. Yeah, yeah, there you go. And then you've got other places too. You can go to jimjeffries.com. I'm about to,

hey, to the people of Great Britain and Europe, I'm about to put something on the books, something on the books for next year. Oh, yeah. I'm going to be fucking, I'm about to put something on the books, something on the books for next year. Oh, yeah. I'm going to be fucking, I'm going to be all over Europe, all over it.

Don't forget Asia before that. I'm doing, I'm already booked in to do Asia in December, but in the new year, I haven't picked the month, but we're in negotiations with a promoter. So there's going to be a full British tour and there's going to be, we're going to do countries that I haven't played before on tour. There's Poland, Icelandeland let's all go you can bring me into my motherland oh my god i tried to go there i tried to go to iceland there was a winter storm that was the only show

i've ever missed with you was when i i flew in remember and i kept trying to get there and i couldn't get in and then i came in you had just gotten on stage. It was an Oslo. So yeah. They're proposing three cities in Norway. Like this is a big tour. We've done multiple shows in Norway. We did Oslo. We did. We're doing three now.

There's a city in Norway where all the nurses train and it's the highest rate of STDs. I don't remember the name of the city. Fun fact. Fun fact. Right. Follow us on Instagram at IDCat Podcast. Check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash idcat. And we've got merch at idontknowaboutthat.com. I've never done a gig in France.

I've done gigs all over Europe. Never done one in France. We're going to do Germany. We're going to do Austria. We're going to do Belgium. So we're doing Spain. We're doing Portugal. Right? I've never done

spain or portugal but france i live i lived a 40 minute flight away from france for 10 years uh maybe it didn't be a zoom you met yeah yeah we did a show remember we did the show for the yacht company wasn't that italians yeah it was italian and the guy said to you he goes we've been trying to get you to come to italy and you're like not hard you just invite me i want to come to italy i like the place i like the people like the food just make me an offer it can be just drinks i don't even drink anymore plate of pasta come do it like um yeah so i want to do france and uh they were like god they don't like English. I'm like, even if it's like 300 seats, just give me a small venue in France, man.

I just would like to go there. I've been to France many times, but I'd like to perform there. So when that gets announced, of course, you'll see it on Jim's website, on social media, stuff like that. I'm just saying a lot of people write to me from those countries, mostly from Britain. Britain, normally, I just do like Manchester, Birmingham, london we're gonna we're gonna cover the place we have listeners in all those countries i got a glass go as well we have listeners in all those countries though

people will be excited and then uh let's kelly was saying our patreon please subscribe to that um id cap podcast on instagram uh merch store buy some. What I really want with this tour is that Netflix hadn't released the special yet so I can do the material. That would be nice. Every time I record a special, I'm like, now my life is hell. I have to write new jokes. And every time my management, I go, hey, can you just lay off the gigs for a bit?

I haven't got any jokes. And they just laugh at me. My management will laugh at me. They'll go, you'll be able to do it. You got it. We believe in you, buddy. And they give you a little thing right in your arm. You got it. It's our. They laugh and they go, yeah, you always say this. Because it's always really stressful. It's very difficult. And you always pull it off.

Yeah, maybe you should stop pulling it off so well. Until I become a manager, Jack. Until I don't. Also, I have another podcast called The Merman Podcast with Dave Williamson. It's pretty fun. You should listen to it. We don't know what we're doing, but it's fun. I haven't heard. I haven't listened to it yet. I'll listen to that. Yeah, check it out. It's on other podcast platforms.

Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon, all that fucking. When's your gig, Jack? When's this gig we're going to it yet. I'll listen to that. Yeah, check it out. It's on other podcast platforms. Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon, all that fucking bullshit. When's your gig, Jack? When's this gig we're going to? Tomorrow. Tomorrow night. Although we're months ago. No, like three weeks ago. I'm going out tonight, so the wife might have to finesse this.

I'm playing board games tonight, but I don't know if I can get to it. It's supporting Jack and his endeavors. You're on the industry list, so it's a work function. It's supporting Jack and his endeavors. Yeah, and she loves Jack. Jack's helped her with all of herself. It's for Jack.

Alright, our guest is here. Let's do this. IDK. Please welcome our guest today, Jonathan Stewart. Now it's time to play. Yes, no. Yes, no. Yes, no.

Yes, no. Judging a book by its cover. All right, Jon Stewart. I know you. Big fan of you. Okay, so Jon or Jonathan? Jonathan. Jonathan. Okay, so John or Jonathan? Jonathan. Jonathan.

Okay, Jonathan. You have a boomerang behind you. So I will say this is about cultural appropriation of my people and how you shouldn't be doing such a thing. As an Australian, I'm deeply disturbed by you putting that on that wall. That spiritually means a lot to me. Does it? Not really.

It's actually just an antenna to an old... It's the back of an old limo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've got a hard hat, so does your thing involve construction? Sort of, yes, loosely. Is it architecture? No. He's throwing you off with the construction a little bit. not he's not wrong but i wouldn't focus on construction all right so i'm trying to see how the picture

he's got a picture of the coliseum i believe back there uh family put some books he's a reader a the hard hat is something you might want to wear if this was happening are we doing bukkake's again no you know what i'll give you a hint this again i can't remember the first podcast what was it remember the first podcast first podcast first podcast that we did that wasn't was earthquakes that we never actually had it that's what we're doing earthquake yeah yeah we love you special man that was the best comedy special of the year, the earthquake special. Check that out, man. The comedian earthquake.

Yeah, he nailed it. There was a comedian named Earthquake. I don't know if you're familiar with him, Jonathan. It's a banger. 30 minutes of solid gold. He's very funny. I will have to look that up. Jonathan Stewart is a professor of civil and environmental engineering

in the UCLA Samuel Lee. I don't know if I'm saying that. Samuel I. School of Engineering. Samuel E. Samuel E. sure if I'm saying that right. Samueli School of Engineering. Samueli. Samueli. Didn't get it right either, Todd. UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and an expert in earthquake engineering with extensive experience documenting the effects of major earthquakes in California, Turkey, Taiwan, India, and Greece. His particular expertise relates to the intensity of ground shaking and its effects on buildings, bridges, dams, and levees. Stuart also studies ground failure, which involves permanent displacements of the ground due to earthquakes.

And he also led an earthquake simulation testing the strength of California's levees. Can you tell us a little bit more about your background in earthquakes and earthquakes and led you into this field and so forth? Sure. Yeah, I've been at UCLA for 26 years now on the faculty. My education is from UC Berkeley. What kind of got me into earthquakes originally was the Loma Prieta earthquake, if you remember from 1989 up in the Bay Area, which is where I lived back then. And so that happened when I was an undergrad and I was very interested in why it was that damage happened in some areas and not others that were right next door. So that kind of piqued my curiosity. And as I started investigating it, I realized there was a lot to learn and there was opportunity for great impact in that area so that steered me in that direction was that the earthquake where oakland was in the world

series in the stadium against san francisco sam was it san francisco although both in the world series but it was oakland stadium right everything was rattling you're right it was the a's and the giants uh it was actually that game was being played in Candlestick Park, which no longer exists. Oh, okay. And the highway collapse, I remember. That was like that, really. Right. So I was in Berkeley. Reasonably close by was the cypress structure in Oakland near the Bayfront, and parts of that collapsed.

There was a deck in the Bay Bridge that came down. And that night, it was actually pretty scary in the Marina District of San Francisco. There were out of control fires down there. So, you know, it was pretty ugly in pockets around the Bay Area. But where I was, we felt it, but there was really no damage so that that's what i was talking about there was this sort of combination of really bad effects in some places and not so bad in others and um you know that really as i say piqued my interest uh i i was once at dodger stadium when a little tiny earthquake happened it was very exciting the place went like. And the pitcher didn't know the earthquake. After he was interviewed, he didn't know that the earthquake

was happening because he continued to pitch. Right. And it's like he threw a ball right when it happened and we all went, whoa! And he was like on the mound like this going, all right, okay. You come out and fucking do it if you can throw so good. All right. I'm going to ask Jim a series of questions on earthquakes. After I'm

done asking him, you're going to grade him on his answers. Zero through ten. Ten's the best. Kelly's going to grade him on confidence. I'm going to grade him on et cetera. We'll add all those scores together. Zero through ten, Jim. That's right here. Eleven through twenty. Like that.

And then twenty through thirty is like that, right there. That's a big one. For the audio only people, Forrest was shaking the desk at various intervals. I think they could hear it. It was crazy. Forgot to make categories again. No, that was my categories.

Okay, all right, sure. Sorry. Jim, why do earthquakes happen? Earthquake, if you live on a fault line right the plates of the earth that um are next to each other they sometimes can get a bit irritated like when you're rubbing corduroy pants together why do they move yeah uh the different plates and the movement of the earth. Yeah. Yeah. What tectonic plates are underneath California? We have a fault line underneath California. Yeah.

Which tectonic, which plates are there? What's its name? Yeah, sure. Bert Nerney. How are earthquakes measured? On a Richter scale. Okay. How are earthquakes predicted and how accurately can they be predicted?

What do you mean? Like how far out are they predicted? Like, cause they always talk like we're going to have a big one coming up in LA. Yeah. I guess maybe can they be predicted? You can predict whether if there's a fault line. You can do it like anything, like baseball type of stats. You can go throughout the decades, we've had this many earthquakes.

That would suggest that the next decade we'll have this many earthquakes. And then when they go from this range to that range and that type of stuff. So it would just be like averages. What U.S. state is the most seismically active? U.S. state would be my, I'd say California. Oh, maybe Hawaii. No, but that's volcanoes and shit. I don't even know if that's the same.

I'm going to say California. What is the location deep inside the earth where earthquakes begin? The heart and soul of the world. Okay. Lava pit. You want me to keep asking this? I'll skip ahead. No, no, no. That's cool.

I think he's answered it all right. What is the location of the earth? As far as looking at me disappointed. Like this isn't the premise of the podcast. We have done this topic before. We were hoping maybe you retain some. What is the location on the earth's surface above where the earthquakes begin? The last one was like deep inside the earth.

The crust. Okay. How do scientists calculate where the epicenter is of an earthquake? Where the most vibration comes from. It's where the Richter scale goes crazy the most. Okay. Yeah. That's the epic from is it's it's where where the rick the skull goes crazy uh the mostest okay yeah it's that's the epicenter where it's like because you can be in an earthquake but you can be on the outskirts of it i've been in earthquakes plenty of them in la um but i have never been in the epicenter of the whole thing i don't believe there you go here's one what's

what's a tsunami tsunami is is a giant wave that will come in and when it's caused by earthquakes underneath the ocean and then it causes the big wave and the water all sucks in and then a big wave comes and destroys things, varying degrees of the tsunami. What is the ring of fire? The ring of fire. Hemorrhoids? Yeah, I was going to go hemorrhoid joke, but I'm trying to answer it sensibly.

Well, you were just singing a Johnny Cash song too, so I don't know. Yeah, it's a song. Okay, but I don't know. Prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. Okay. Are earthquakes getting more or less prolific? I would say they're getting more prolific because every natural disaster

seems to be getting more prolific. And I would say it's getting more prolific because of things like fracking and stuff like that and us fucking up the soil. I don't believe they're global warming related, but I do believe we're getting more earthquakes. How many earthquakes occur a year? I don't think it's substantially more, but I do think we're getting more. In the whole world?

Yeah. Including little itty-bitty ones? Sure. A couple of thousand. Okay. Is there a connection between volcanic activity and earthquakes that's one i would say there is because the the rumbling underneath the ground and the lava and all that type of stuff i believe that little earthquakes could uh make a uh volcano erupt and so i believe yes they're they're actually connected and i'm going to change my answer to Hawaii. What are the three deadliest earthquakes in human history?

I would say that one in Japan where the nuclear reactor all went screw-iff about eight years ago, nine years ago, whatever that was. I think that one was right up there. The earthquake of 1812. And the 1812 earthquake that was a war that's the only thing we were doing the world just stopped fucking turning because there's a war

on the planet don't give a shit one more and then I'll say the LA no not LA LA is not the biggest one what's one that's flat in the fucking town, man? The earthquake of the San Fernando Valley, 1811.

Year before. What did the ancient Greeks think were the cause of earthquakes? The gods. It's always the gods. And I'll say Thor and the thunder and all that type of stuff. And it would be because the gods it's always the gods and i'll say thor and the thunder and all that type of stuff and it would be because the gods weren't happy and what were the causes of earthquakes in japanese mythology uh same thing there'd be some religious thing they believe it was buddha sitting down because he's a fat fuck and what what should you do to stay safe during

earthquake ah see this changes all you should during an earthquake? Ah, see, this changes a lot. You should have an earthquake kit in your house. They used to say to stand in doorways, but that has since been debunked. They reckon now you should get underneath a table, a four-legged table is a better way to do it. I personally would run out into the street, get out of whatever structure you're in, but they say get under a table. And what are the three leading causes of fatalities from earthquakes um people not getting under a table

no debris falling on top of people um and then it would be uh falling through cracks yeah and uh the next one would be um it would be a long-term fatality uh lack of water lack of this lack of that you know flooding and you know okay how many people die in earthquakes each year 42 um and then what how how is los angeles designed to be prepared for earthquakes our houses are made out of wood that's a big one. Our freeways have little divides in them. We use a different type of concrete than asphalt so that the things will just separate rather than crumble. What about skyscrapers?

How are they designed? They'd have flexy bits in them. They're not made out of wood, though. No, not made out of wood though no no man it would but they would they would be like seals in between the structure and stuff so i can wobble a bit okay and then what what are the effects of earthquakes on hospitals and in situations like a pandemic well the big problem with earthquakes and hospitals they have the same problem that everybody has that the ball the building could fall out but they have more bigger

problems they can't lose their electricity they can't lose their water because these things are vital to keeping the people alive within the hospital. So it's more, you know, they can have generators and stuff like that. But, you know, you don't want to lose power. Okay. Jonathan, zero through ten. Ten's the best. How did Jim do on his knowledge of earthquakes? I'm going to go with a five.

All right. I was keeping track. You you know i am a professor i grade people it's part of my job yeah so you were about 50 yeah man i'm all right with that how are you doing confidence um you know what i'm gonna give you a five on confidence a bit shaky yeah a bit shaky. Yeah, a bit shaky. I mean, I do remember the first time we recorded this, you called the Richter scale an earthquake-o-meter, so I was very impressed with the Richter scale answer. The Andy Richter scale.

Okay, I'm going to give you a two on et cetera. Oh, wow, that's pretty good. That's where you're at right there. All right. Yeah. By the way, we we we did never released our earthquake podcast uh it was a trial run was it we didn't know what we were doing yet and it was never released just so you know we're not repeating this so you're you are our first first

earthquake expert that will be released just so you know so i would suggest you don't run out of the building during an earthquake yeah because one of the leading causes of death is glass and falling debris. Fake news. I just don't want to be inside a structure that's going like that. I'd rather be outside on the lawn. I've always thought that too, where it's like maybe if you could run into an open field or something like that, but.

Well, there's so many open fields in LA.'s just like tons of i'll find one so many of them um so uh jonathan why do earthquakes happen jim said if you live on a fault line the plates and get irritated like corduroy paint that white earth what happens with an earthquake maybe you can explain to us so uh plate tectonics are the underlying cause of earthquakes. Essentially, the Earth is still a relatively young planet and it's really hot on the inside and it's trying to dissipate the heat from the inside. So there's a process called convection where the heat comes from the interior towards the the outside of the planet the surface of the planet and then it gets to the top and it starts traveling horizontally that that hot material cools and it's sort of dragging the plate which is the upper part of the

earth's cross-section it's kind of dragging that along and so these plates are moving in different directions on the surface of the earth and when you have two plates moving relative to each other that's a plate boundary and you get a lot of earthquakes so is it just basically releasing steam or something is that yeah pretty much so is there an argument that earthquakes are vital for the life of the planet i mean it's part of what makes Earth Earth. Yeah. I mean, the fact that we are a young planet

and we're releasing this heat is just part of what makes up our whole atmosphere and everything. Next time there's an earthquake, I'm just going to yell that out. Live, Earth, live! It's a necessary evil. Be you. Now, I mean, might be jumping ahead to some stuff but now obviously the center of the earth is much hotter than the surface but with any of the effects of like the just being climate

change or anything it's not going to affect anything with earthquakes the way it does other weather patterns and like that right that's That's not even an answer. Yeah, climate change doesn't affect earthquakes. It affects lots of other things and other natural disasters, but not earthquakes. Yeah. So I must have got a point for that. Yeah. Yeah, I got it.

So, okay, so us people who live in California, right, we laugh at the people in Florida like, ha-ha, you're all going to be underwater, you idiots, like that, right? You don't believe in global warming and you're stupid. People believe in global warming in Florida. No, but you know the argument, right? We make jokes about Mar-a-Lago being under the sea and all that type of stuff, right?

We make jokes about it. And then when it comes to us, we're like, hey, you've got to live your life. We're on these bloody plates that are about to bloody destroy us and we're like, hey, you got to live your life. Yeah, yeah. We're on these bloody plates that are about to bloody destroy us, and we're like, what you going to do? Do you think it's silly to live in California? Do you think that, like, in LA, that's like you're a moron for doing this? No. I mean, I don't think you or I are morons.

Speak for yourself. You or I are morons. Speak for yourself. The, you know, we have to be very careful. We have to understand what the impacts of the earthquakes are. So how strong will the shaking be? How can we design structures to resist them? But we can do that.

And, you know, you look around the country, every place has its natural hazards. You know, ours just happens to be earthquakes. I once was in, you ever been in one where it rocks and then you're like, when it's little, it's a bit of fun. You're like, ooh, ooh. And then it goes up a gear. Yeah. Like it just like the dial gets turned and it's boom.

And you're like, oh. Because then you're like, if it goes up another gear, I'm fucked. Yeah. But this first gear, and that's when you get a bit scared and then it miles down, you go. And then you're like, if it goes up another gear, I'm fucked. Yeah. But this first gear, and that's when you get a bit scared and then it miles down, you go, and then you ring everyone up. You go, that was a bloody big one. I know what I like. I like watching a newsreader who's doing live news duck under their desk.

That's the best because they break character so fucking quickly. They always start off with, and also in the news, this thing, and problems in Ukraine. Oh, no. Oh, no! Oh, fuck me! I prefer the shaking ones to the rolling ones, though. The rolling ones make me feel nauseous for days afterwards.

It's so bizarre. I was in Joshua Tree when that big 4th of July earthquake came, and we saw it ripple over the Torian. It was really cool. My nephew, when I was still living in Venice, came out when he was like 10, and he decided to learn how to skateboard on Venice Beach. And he had one of those long boards. And he was riding on it when an earthquake happened,

and he fell off. And he's like, I'll never get this. And I'm like, no, there was an earthquake. He just thought he was uncoordinated. That's such bad timing. Oh, my God. We were in Japan. You may remember that that earthquake was there

was the july 4th and then there was a much larger one the next day and so uh one of the things that my group does is we go investigate after an earthquake happens and we had some people there after the first one and we got back to our hotel at the end of the day and we're just getting ready to go for dinner when the much larger one hit so we were actually standing in the parking lot when that happened and it was so intense that i had to get down like a short stop in order to keep from falling over yeah that one was crazy yeah but they're a bit of fun though aren't they well i was on the top i lived in an apartment complex at the time and i was on the top floor and it really shook like my tv almost fell off the stand and the worst part is i was i was dog sitting my friend's dog and it was the compilation of fireworks around the fourth

of july then the first earthquake then the second earthquake i was like this poor dog is so there was an earthquake i think i probably mentioned in the last weizing. There was an earthquake. I think I probably mentioned it last time, but we never aired it. There was an earthquake that happened, I'm going to say eight years ago, because Hank was very little, and it was in the morning, and the whole house went like that. And I woke up. But the scary thing about it was all my son's toys were motion activated. It's because he's one, so you push him a little bit.

So there's always this puppy going, welcome to my learning show. Here I am to help one. So they're all like, you push him a little bit. So there's always like, there's this puppy going, welcome to my learning show. Here I am to help you. Like this, right? And then another, like a cow noise was coming out of another bloody toy like that. It was like a fucking Spielberg movie, man. What tectonic plates are underneath California? Not Bert and Ernie. Okay. So the plate boundary that runs through California,

I'd use the word through, not underneath, is the San Andreas Fault. San Andreas Fault. They've made movies about it. Yeah, I should have gotten that one. I know that one. And they shot the San Andreas movie in Australia. Dang, double whammy.

Oh, man. Why wouldn't they just shoot it here? That was the thing. That was the thing. When I thing when i when i met neil finn i i was at a gifting suite and i met neil finn the lead singer from crowded house and i decided my opening conversation would be this hey neil i'm a big fan i've seen you in concert uh four times i would have seen you five times, but in Newcastle, there was an earthquake and the venue fell down that morning. So I obviously didn't go to that show, right?

Thinking he'd laugh. He goes, yeah, a couple of our roadies died setting up the gig that morning. And I was like, that would be the one. Real tragedy. I thought I- You really messed that one up. Because then he knew I wasn't lying because I knew that the Crowded

House gig didn't happen because of the earthquake in Newcastle. And then fuck, I fucked it. Yeah. How are earthquakes measured? Jim said the Richter scale. Is that correct? So the how is seismometers, right? So seismometers measure the ground shaking at different points.

measure the ground shaking at different points. And if you have many seismometers, which of course we do, you can figure out where the slip started and you can figure out about what size the surface of the fault was. And so the size of the earthquake is essentially taken from the area that ruptured and the amount of slip and that's converted to magnitude so the i always look and they always look like those lie detector things where the needle goes up and down right so it's a needle and a bit of paper and the needle goes up and down as the earth's shaking so do we have lots of these are they always turned on or is there like oh barry's got one and then

he's like i fucking was vacuuming iged it, so that one wasn't working. Or are they just in labs or are they in space? What? Okay. Yeah, are they out in like mountains? They're digital now, you know, and there's thousands of them in California alone. So, but your memory is good. I mean, we used to record on film actually,

and it was an optical film measurement and then we'd go digitize them. So that was much slower. The process of figuring out where the earthquakes were and their size took human interaction and could take a few days. And now we can do it quicker. When you experience an earthquake, do you do the same thing I do and then go on to some earthquake webpage where they show you the little blobs of red where it actually happened? And you go, I knew it.

I knew that was one. I do. The first thing I do if I don't feel like I'm in danger is I try to record the amount of time from when I first feel something. And you were talking about this earlier. It starts kind of mild and then it gets more intense. I haven't felt anything for years. So if you can record the number of seconds roughly from when you first feel

it to when it gets more intense you can actually make a guess of the distance to the the earthquake i say so i so you get like thunder and light so it's like yeah thunder and lightning where you count in between or whatever but so how does that how do you know you're in the epicenter how do you go oh i'm in the epicenter well you get whacked pretty hard and you wouldn't have that really that time lapse between the two it would just start out intense right away i look i i wasn't a good school student and i remember just like being in school like i need a natural disaster but there was only really bushfires in australia and i knew where they were coming they took a week to get there like that right i reckon as a school kid in california i'd be like getting a history. I'd be like, come on, earthquake.

There are no snow days here. I'd be rooting for it. And so prediction of earthquakes, can they be predicted with any accuracy? My answer was baseball stats. So Jim's answer on this one was pretty good, actually. So, you know, when people say predicted, sometimes what they mean is like the weather and that we can't do. So we can't say it's going to be an earthquake on Friday, you know, something like that. But what we can do is something along the lines of what Jim said, which is, you know, if you have a fault and you know where that fault is,

and you can see how many earthquakes it's producing over time, that's a pretty good indicator of what's going to happen in the future. So we basically map the faults, we make measurements to try to see how much movement's happening across the fault, and then we use that information to make forecasts of future earthquakes and their size. and then we use that information to make forecasts of future earthquakes and their size. This might sound a bit hippy-dippy, but I heard all the sea lions leave like Marina del Rey a couple of days before an earthquake. Is there animal intuition that we know of or is that just bullshit? There's some really compelling anecdotes like that that are reported.

The thing that's tricky is how often do they do that? And then there isn't an earthquake. Right, right, right, right. So when you study it that way, it's kind of indeterminate. Someone put chum in the water over there. Now everyone's freaking out. Is there new fault lines or all the fault lines in the world already established uh we keep finding new ones and they're new to us the earth

knew about them all along oh so there's not new ones that are created as such not really no i mean over geologic time yes but over the time span of like human occupation of california no they're here we just take a while to find them are there any countries with zero fault lines um like i know that you're gonna say no but there would be countries with faults that are likely inactive so like the uk has hardly any but when i was living there there was a small earthquake in dudley which is just outside of Birmingham worst accent you've ever heard in your life and they were just like

and the house rumbled and everything right and there was just like the news was just a picture of a couple of knocked down chimneys it's big time in the UK they've got them I guess there isn't a lot of earthquakes in the uk because i just think about the way they build things everything's everything's

brick and everything's next to each other joining each other yeah just little rocks historically they haven't heard had earthquakes otherwise their architecture is shit they're not on a plate boundary so we're on a plate boundary and they're not. That's the difference. But it rains all the time. Yeah. And so when they're predicting, cause I've always read stuff where they're like, eventually there will be like,

and I don't know if it's seismologists or actually people that study it, but there's always this threat. At least you read something like there will be a big earthquake and part of LA will fall in the water. So these threats and stuff, I mean, is that a real prediction or something like that? Or is that. We're not going to fall in the water. So these threats and stuff, I mean, is that a real prediction or something like that? Or is that...

We're not going to fall in the ocean. We are going to get a big earthquake. And how will the valley be is what I really am interested in. Well, I just love six flags, man. You know, there's a lot of faults founding the valley and there's

liquefiable soils in there. So, you know, there's a lot of faults founding the valley, and there's liquefiable soils in there. So, you know, the valley has had the two big Southern California earthquakes in the last 60 years or so, San Fernando and North Carolina. Is it mostly hot places that seem to have earthquakes? It feels like hotter places have more earthquakes. You never hear one like in Norway, it was snowing down and snow went everywhere. Am I just an idiot? In Norway, no.

But Nepal has its fair share of earthquakes. And that can get pretty cold. Okay, so we didn't actually talk about this. It was in your bio where you talk about the permanent displacements of the ground earthquake. You just mentioned liquefaction, landslides. So when the ground gets liquefied, what does that mean? You just mentioned that. Yeah.

So liquefaction is when you have soil that loses strength during the earthquake. It's because there's shallow groundwater. It experiences strong shaking and the pore pressure in the water goes up. Strength goes down. And then the ground can really move a lot. It can flow. Structures that are resting on the ground can topple over because there's no more bearing capacity. So one of the most famous recent examples of this was Christchurch, New Zealand, 2011, which really got whacked by a liquefaction.

I was just in Christchurch, and it's still not rebuilt from this earthquake i'll say this about christ church you can park your car anywhere because like every every third building was knocked down yeah and they're just i've been there too yeah there's just parking lots there now just all over the place and you're like oh it's very convenient this town but like i was there about two years after it happened there was still like churches with big holes in them and stuff like that and the new zealand decided quite what to do with the church i've been there too i've been there a couple times the new zealanders were up for a laugh because i was there going oh beautiful town you should finish these buildings and they all

laughed they didn't give a fuck they were all laughing yeah because i remember i watched a documentary on the um the new football stadium getting built. And they mentioned that the way they were building it was all these things. They were building it for earthquakes specifically. And one of them was that liquefaction. I said liquefaction, but liquefaction was the way they were building it to prevent that. It was really interesting. Or was this in Christchurch?

No, no, no. The football stadium here. SoFi? The SoFi stadium. I mean, it's a pretty cool documentary. I think it's on Netflix, just the amount of stuff they do to build it. But also Christchurch.

They did build, I guess it would be a rugby stadium. Yeah. They're talking about putting a rugby league team in Christchurch as one of the new things. But I don't know. Earthquake town, man. It's a nice city, Christchurch. Yeah. What U.S. state is most seismically active?

Jim said California, changed it to Hawaii. California. Yeah. I mean, Alaska is a competitor, but I would go with California there. Yeah, I was thinking Alaska. And then what is the location deep inside the earth where earthquakes begin? Is it the heart and soul or lava pit? The core.

Yeah. Okay. So remember what we talked about with the dissipation of heat and uh you have the the flow of heat that is moving the plates along and it's really within those plates that the earthquakes happen so um pretty much five to twenty kilometers depth would be typical for an active region like California. It can be deeper in subduction zones like up in the Pacific Northwest. Okay.

And then the location on the Earth's surface above where the earthquakes began. That's the epicenter, which Jim got right, I think. And was I right about the fracking and all that, or is that just bollocks? No, you were right about the fracking and all that, or is that just bollocks? No, you were right about that. So not always, but sometimes when we undertake fracking and then the injection of the waste fluids back into the ground after the fracking, we get more earthquakes happening. So Oklahoma is the famous case here in the US. So that question that was, are they getting more or less prolific? He said they are. He thinks they're getting more prolific. And one of the reasons he said is fracking. But are they getting more prolific

in general, just naturally as well, too? So if you were to kind of screen out the induced earthquakes from the fracking and that kind of thing, they're not changing. You know, the tectonic processes don't really change over time. It can seem like there's more. You might just, by random chance, get a big earthquake in 2010 in Haiti and in 2011 in Japan. But if you sort of look over the broad view,

they don't really change in rate over time. 2011? It was that long ago? In Japan? Yeah, that long ago. and i i already just as soon as he just said a couple years in different places i already thought of probably where the worst earthquakes are i used to do the indonesia that one was really bad yeah i used to do a routine about that because in japan the the uh the nuclear place the the factory whatever you call it the fukushima yeah so that got teared down it was very similar time

to when obama was uh not obama um some osama bin laden was killed and they dumped him in the ocean oh yeah and i used to joke about we're super villain man we're gonna make godzilla godzilla i've seen enough fucking i've seen enough bloody bloody Godzilla movies to know how this all plays out. And then, I think you already mentioned, that's how you calculate where the epicenter is, right? So once you figure out where the slip starts, then you

project to the surface, and that's the epicenter. I think I got it. So tsunami, Jim said, is a giant wave caused by earthquakes in the ocean. Now, this one's always the scariest to people. I'm terrified. Is that the only way? I mean, that is what a tsunami is, right? Just shifting the plates into the ocean.

And wildfights. Yeah. So tsunamis, Jim basically was right. The cause of it is because there's a vertical displacement of the seafloor from an earthquake. Or it could even be from a landslide. But like in the terrible tsunami in 2011 was definitely a shifting

of the seafloor. It's like when you see those wave pools at water parks and you hear that bang and then a big wave comes out. Yeah. Just like that. And then whenever you see the video, I know when the videos go online, people will inevitably comment underneath them like, wave doesn't look that big. And I guess when the videos go online, people inevitably comment underneath. I'm like, wave doesn't look that big.

And I guess they've just never actually been in the surf before to understand how powerful water is. And they're just like, don't look that bad. I could be in that. I'm like, oh, sure. Okay. Just the entire ocean coming at me is like my biggest irrational fear. I don't live near the water. You could be driving down near Venice.

Well, I used to live in Costa Mesa and like three minutes from my house there was a tsunami route sign and I was just like, I gotta get out of here. Drowning is my worst fear. My biggest fear is spelling tsunami. Yes, that's a tough one.

Is it silent T? Good. Well, you gotta spell it. Yeah, silent T is the first one. Okay, so T. All right, T. So far, so good. T-S-U-M-A-I. Very close.

T-S-U-N-A-M-I. Yeah, you didn't see all the syphilis tsunami billboards all over Hollywood on the drive-by. I see. I don't recall things. What is the ring of fire okay so yes leaving Johnny Cash aside for a moment he's useless isn't he

no one listens to his music everyone says they like it like I don't give a fuck what anyone says Johnny Cash was a hack I'm a bit of a fan but everyone's a bit everyone's a bit but have you ever been driving down sunset, listening to it in your car? Never.

You know, it probably comes up in random mode on the iPod. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Never by choice. So ring of fire is around the perimeter of the Pacific plate. And we are actually on the Pacific plate,

not the North American plate, which would be, you know, Las Vegas is on the North American plate. The Pacific plate is moving gradually to the Northwest. And as it does so, it causes earthquakes in some areas, like here in California. It causes volcanoes and different kinds of earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Japan, and so on. So kind of all the way around the rim of the Pacific plate, there's high levels of geologic activity.

Okay. Why is it called the Ring of Fire? I thought there'd be like volcanoes and stuff associated. Yeah, there are. Yeah, there's volcanoes in some areas just not all okay and so japan has them alaska has them pacific northwest sumatra you know and so to jim's point earlier volcanoes and earthquakes are they like go hand in hand are they like related or are they separate or are they just kind of is there what's the well i guess i'll say sort of um you can definitely have earthquakes without volcanoes we pretty much have that here in california right

our earthquakes on the san andre's fault and all of our local faults there's no volcanoes related to that on the other hand volcano or volcanic eruptions usually are preceded by small earthquakes. And that's actually how volcanologists can kind of tell something's brewing. And then they both happen along the ring of fire. So in that way, they're loosely related. They're loosely related. But you wouldn't want them both at Thanksgiving. Right.

Yeah. I see a lot of tension Earthquakes like this fuck off and then like fucking volcano don't let that counter up don't talk politics in front of that prick he'll go off

I hear you don't get me started how many earthquakes occur a year Jim said a couple thousand I hear you. Don't get me started. How many earthquakes occur a year? Jim said a couple thousand. It's going to be more. Yeah. I mean, I have a couple numbers here, but you really have to say what magnitude you're looking at.

So for us engineers and scientists, we would say, well, how many magnitude seven or up or eight or up earthquakes do we get per year? So those numbers I have, we get about, um, 12, uh, magnitude seven plus earthquakes per year on average. Um, and about 0.8 magnitude eight plus earthquakes per year, or about four every five years. Right. I think I've been in a couple of 4s and 5s right? Those little ones. Yeah, those would be thousands. The 4th of July one was what, like 6.9 or what?

Was it over 7? I can't remember. First one was 6.4 and the second one was 7.2. Okay. And what's the biggest ones in history? So we already know the 1812 one. And What's the biggest ones in history? We already know the 1812 ones. What's the other two? The three deadliest. These were the deadliest, not biggest.

Yeah, I mean the biggest in magnitude that I'm aware of is the 9.5 in Chile, 1960. That's huge. I can't even imagine how brutal that would feel. That's a cold place. Parts of it, yeah the interesting thing about magnitude

it's not like the shaking would be that much more intense in a 9.5 versus an 8 or even a 7.5 but it would last a lot longer yeah because the one in Japan wasn't it like 20 minutes or something or am i wrong or is it 2011 yeah it it was uh not 20 minutes thankfully but it was uh it was minutes you know in some areas 90 minutes 45 seconds how many minutes sorry like three minutes or so yeah

that's feels like 20 when you're in it. Yeah, if you've had an edible. Yeah. That'll go on for a long time. Well, I mean, this edible's strong. When I first moved here, I was here probably a month, and there was one here, and I think it was like a 4.2.

And that was the first time I moved here from Florida. And maybe they're in Florida. I'd never felt one in Florida. But I remember freaking out, and it was like three seconds, maybe. And to me, that seemed like forever. So I can't imagine minutes of that magnitude too because that was like six or seven, the Japan one. Eventually, it would go.

Like if it keeps going on for a while. A minute or two would be insane. Yeah, but if it goes on for like 12 minutes or something, I might go to Whole Foods and buy something. You know what I mean? Jim's all of a sudden asleep on his couch. You know what I'm thinking? He's probably a sudden asleep on his couch. You know, all I'm thinking is

probably traffic's free at the moment. Everyone's not there. Yeah, get some stuff done. Yeah, go to the bank. Okay,

so yeah, because I follow a thing on Twitter. I go to the street and say, sorry everyone, I farted. Just to get a laugh.

Yeah, you got to loosen everyone up. Yeah, because there's a thing I follow, it was LA QuakeBot on Twitter or something like that.

I think it's that. Every day there's like a.81 or.1. They happen constantly. I was going over to me next door and I was knocking on the door while the earthquake was going. Can I get that shovel back

that I lent you? Always lending shovels. I don't think we asked this. This was what continent has the least amount of earthquakes or what place has the least amount of earthquakes like where where do you go i'd say australia would be the continent with the least amount yeah i don't know actually it's antarctica oh that's cold that's because no one's up there to check down there down there hello it depends which way you're traveling.

That is true. Good point. If you're upside down. Australia, everything's upside down. Let's go. Is there a connection between volcanic activity and earthquakes? We just talked about that. Earthquakes and fire. I didn't ask this question. But why? There's plenty of reasons why earthquake and fire

would go hand in hand. Because you've got the tearing down of power lines you've got electric electricity problems you got that i see that as an opportunity to burn things there's loads of reasons of course fires if your plumbing is going to fuck up if your electric if your electricity fucks up. Fire, hand in hand. Am I right? Yeah, well done. Six points. The earthquake doesn't directly cause fire. It's not like fire is, you know, coming out of the fault like a blowtorch or something. But, yeah, they cause gas pipes to break,

they can down power lines, and some of the worst impacts of earthquakes are fires ignited by them. How accurate was the original Superman with Christopher Reeve where Lex Luthor bought up a whole lot of land in Nevada so that LA would fall into the ocean and he'd have oceanfront property? Is that a good idea? Would have that worked? No, I don't think Lex Luthor had the right idea there. We're not going to fall into the ocean. It's too hot in Nevada. That was one of like, when you break it as

a kid, you go, that's a plausible thing that a mastermind criminal would do. And now you look at it like, that's a stupid idea. Yeah. Should have hired a seismologist. Because then you've got to sell the land off later and then you've got to develop the properties, get in construction people. Oh yeah, permits. Environmental surveys you've got to sell the land off later. Then you've got to develop the properties, get in construction people. Oh, yeah. Permits.

Environmental surveys he had to do. It's good because he was doing it in a no state income tax. So that would have been nice. Yeah. And the deadliest earthquakes. I don't think we kind of, do we know what that is? The three deadliest? Yeah. kind of, do we know what that is? The three deadliest? Yeah, I mean, so the most deadly

earthquake in human history is in China from the 1500s, about 800,000. In modern times, the worst is Haiti, 300,000 in 2010. Oh, I remember Haiti. Yeah, that was bad. That was really bad. That was a bad one,

wasn't it? That probably goes back to what we were talking about Remember Haiti? Yeah, that was bad. That was really bad. That was a bad one, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. That was no good. And that probably goes back to what we were talking about as far as structures and what people live in and what they can afford to live in. Right. That was the problem. Right.

It's not like their shaking was more intense than ours would be for the same size earthquake, but their structures are not in good shape. We here in California probably the most, because it feels like we're always talking about earthquake and earthquake insurance and earthquake this and earthquake that and building a house. I feel like we're very earthquake ready. Is there any place in the world that has a huge fault line where you look at it like, fuck, those guys aren't ready? They're not ready. Yeah. Yeah. Plenty of them you know most developing countries um and even some non-developing countries like you know one place that i've spent some time and worry a lot about is istanbul in

turkey uh that's a very dense city a lot of tall buildings and they're non-ductile so they're they're really vulnerable we know those kind of buildings come down you could argue that new zealand wasn't ready, really. They didn't have the architecture for it. I'd never heard growing up about New Zealand earthquakes or anything like that. They weren't prepared for that at all. They were, yeah. Liquefaction was a big part of the story in Christchurch, but not the whole story.

There was also non-ductile buildings that came down. There was huge clouds of dust after the earthquake from all these collapsed buildings. When you say non-ductile, what do you mean by that? Ah, yeah. Sorry, that's an engineering term. So ductile means that you can take an element and bend it, and it will retain some strength. So it has the ability to deform, and that's a really good characteristic in an earthquake. I imagine that there's something between my hands here and I'm deforming it.

Non-ductile would mean as soon as I start to deform it, it breaks basically. Yeah. I once saw Mythbusters, right? They did a, did you see that? They had like an earthquake plate. Like they had this like, like, you know, a platform and they built a brick house on top of it. And then they did the earthquake and just, it just fell just down. down and they did the wooden house and it went for three four five times much

earthquake like it was unbelievable the difference yeah it made me very confident to live in a wooden house yeah what is ductile yep and is that why in i believe i might be wrong because they do it in hong kong as well. In China, they use bamboo for scaffolding. Well, yeah. They probably do that because it's plentiful and nearby and cheap. Yeah, but they'll do it on fucking skyscrapers, man. It'll be all... Do you remember that living in Hong Kong?

I remember seeing it when I went there with you. It's all bamboo. It's crazy. It's all bamboo and it's all tied together. Fantastic. And it looks as sturdy as all balls. When I moved here to California, I'm from Miami, Florida. And I know you guys know.

I'm telling you, Jonathan. But yeah. And so everything there is hurricanes, hurricanes, hurricanes. So you build everything out of cinder block and everything's to withstand wind and that. And so when I moved here, I would see things being built and it would just be wood. And I'd be like, what the hell? You cannot,

you could never build that in Florida. They would not even be to code. So I thought things were being built poorly here. I was like, this looks like shit. And then I didn't never thought about earthquakes until I, and then I moved here. I'm like,

ah, yes, that makes sense. That's gotta be, it's gotta like, but I don't feel as sturdy as a brick house. So I've lived in brick homes. of course,

but they have for earthquakes. It makes sense. You want them to be flexible. Like, like John was saying. You want them to be flexible, like Jonathan was saying. You want them to be flexible. So it makes complete sense. Are there some buildings that are built on springs or something? I don't know. We can jump ahead to that.

Maybe we can talk a little bit more about it. Are earth skyscrapers, are they designed? Because they're made of metal and stuff, so how are they designed? Rubber bits in the joints. Yeah, I mean, after you said rubber bits, flexi bits. Yeah, I mean, so the thing I would say about skyscrapers is that each one of them is its own unique structure, so they're not cookie cutter. What that means from an engineering point of view is somebody really looks

carefully at the specific structural system. They simulate what an earthquake does to it. And if it doesn't do well, then they adjust in the design and try to get it to a point where they're pretty confident that it's going to survive the earthquake. Now, physically, the way they do that most often is in the middle of the building, there'll be walls that go all the way from the base to the top. And the elevators are in there, for example, stairways. And these walls are what carry the lateral force. And then what is out around it is just kind of gravity systems. But it's the walls that do the heavy lifting in the earthquake. All right. So what do I tell my kids to do when there's an earthquake? Because I said, get under a table, not a doorway. Was I right there?

So if you're talking about during the earthquake itself, so you feel that initial shaking, what you should do is drop, cover and hold on. So drop means you get down on your knees and cover means you take one hand and you put it behind your head to sort of shield yourself if something falls so it hits your hand not your head hold on is where you take your other hand and if you can you grab on to a table or something like that to sort of keep yourself steady and if you're in a multiple story place you want to to be higher, lower? Where do you want to be? Empty your fridge.

You get in the fridge like Indiana Jones in the last movie. Okay. Of course, you don't have any control once the shaking starts, right? You are where you are, but it doesn't make a big difference. Okay. The one thing I would say about that, though, is a lot of structures are weak on the first floor. And because they might have, say, a storefront there. And so there aren't as many walls.

And when collapses happen, they often do happen on that very first floor. So maybe that's an argument for avoiding that. So if you're outside, if I was like walking my dog on the sidewalk, then what do you do? Like there's a tree, you get away from trees or. You know, if you're outside, this is what my situation during that Ridgecrest event. Um, you're pretty safe. I mean, just keep yourself from falling over, but you know, as long as there's not a power line over you or something, you're good. Should you lay down? Uh, I suppose you could, or at least get into a crouched position like I did just to keep yourself from falling over.

You really don't have much danger in that situation. If you see a super elderly person who's fallen down, should you grab them and put them over your body because they've already lived a long life and use them as a shield? And then say something wise to me. Hard-headed questions. I know Jim thinks earthquake kits are stupid. I have one. Yeah, I know, but you think it's dumb. I think it's dumb. So the reason for the earthquake kit is after

the earthquake, right? It's got a tent in it. Like, if we get to that, I'm already Mad Max-ing. You know what I mean? Like, I got a wand on radio. Yeah, I know. What you've always said is if your house has collapsed, the earthquake kit is in your house. Yeah, the kit's in the house. It's the kit's in the house.

It's like I could find all these other things in my house in the rubble the same way that I find the earthquake kit. The odds are your house will be standing, and you may have cut up feet or something like that because you've walked through glass or whatever, and so earthquake kits could be pretty handy. One of the things you should have is water. Yeah, I've got water. I've got water stocked up, ready to go.

Yeah. Good. That's really important. We did a survival episode, didn't we? Yeah. After that episode, I almost bought a survival pack, and then I didn't. Yeah, I still haven't bought the earthquake kit yet.

I bought my earthquake kit the day after one of the earthquakes happened and the guy's like we've been moving a lot of units. No, after our survival episode on survivalism I like had all these backpack like tabs open and there was like one that was like $300 and it was like it was the shit back then and then I never bought it.

So I'm dead. I've had mine for like nine years. The water in there's got to be terrible. I don't care how good you vacuum sealed it. Yeah, you got to drink it and switch it up. Effects of earthquakes on hospitals and situations like a pandemic. I've got to admit, it's not good. Like Jim said, lose their electricity. The effects of earthquakes on hospitals.

So hospitals are kind of a special case in California. We actually passed the law after the Northridge earthquake in 1994. It says that hospitals have about a 30-year period, I think it was, and after that, they should be usable after the earthquake, which might seem kind of obvious, like shouldn't all buildings be usable after an earthquake, which might seem kind of obvious. Like, shouldn't all buildings be usable after an earthquake? But that's actually not the way the building code sets it up. Most buildings are just intended to not kill you. And as long as you can get out alive, that's considered success. Whereas for hospitals, you should be able to use it after the earthquake.

And so we're well on our way towards getting there. We're not all the way there, but, you know, there is a much higher design standard. Now, one of the things that Jim mentioned in his answer that was quite good is it's not just the structure, right? If the structure is fine, but the plumbing isn't working and the electrical systems are down and all this equipment has fallen off the lab benches and stuff then it's not really functional so it's there's more to it than just keeping the structure intact yeah like something has to function somebody in the icu is

not gonna have a shit if you walk in there with your wind-up radio yeah this is a bit of talk back that'll cheer you up yeah um and then i just just another question are the streets really crappy in la because of earthquakes or are they just crap because no one gives a shit corruption like the pavement yeah that's a separate problem political corruption all right um here's a part of our show called Dinner Party Facts. We ask our guests to give us like a fact or something obscure, interesting that are about this topic that our listeners can use to impress people at our dinner party or bar or something like that. You got some for us? I do have one that I've used many times. So I live in Santa Monica and just like pretty much any resident of Southern California, we have a fault nearby. And so I like to point out where the faults are near whatever event I'm

attending. Cause usually you can spot them pretty easily once you know what you're looking for. Well, you can just see them out in the world. You just walk along. There's one on the golf course in rustic Canyon. You can see. Yeah. Oftentimes. So like you know, in Santa Monica, it's the Santa Monica Fault. It crosses Wilshire at a certain spot. And once you tell people where that is, they're like, oh, yeah, I've noticed that little change in slope right there.

And they're pretty interested to find out that's the fault. My wife would call all the faults Jim because everything's my fault. Wait, so where's the fault? It's Wilshire? This is the Santa Monica fault. There's many faults all throughout California. This particular one, if you can imagine the coastline where

in Malibu you have that east-west coastline. If you just extended that into LA, that's pretty much the Santa Monica fault. And you can tell it because the ground shifts a little, is what you're saying? It's a vertical offset, yeah.

You could live there and tell everyone you're always, no, that joke won't work. Oh, you're always at fault. Yeah, I got it, yeah. Now, with Rustic Canyon, where we play golf, on the first hole, right by the green, there's a fault line right there. They tell you. There's like a little canyon first hole right by the green, there's a fault line right there. They tell you.

There's like a little canyon there. Like that. It's a fault line. They've said it. I'll show it to you next time. It wouldn't change my game. Yeah. You have to hit a ball over it.

You're going to have an earthquake while I'm swinging. It won't make any difference. So you can see the fault lines. I think if you looked online, probably, you could say fault lines in my area. Probably that's the only way I could hit the ball, 250. Yeah. All right. Well, there are faults in your area look it up everybody and then impress people uh jonathan seward thank you for being with us today um i don't know if i didn't even ask we didn't promote is there any social media or any books that you have or anything that you

like us to promote we didn't do promote anything for you uh yeah i don't do much in the social media area the the engineering school does i'm like you might let you you don't need any books they're probably not going to want to promote this with all the swears so i'm fine i i'm working on a book but i mostly i write the articles for journals well when your book's done let us know and we'll promote it on here and uh and um and we'll get some people here and, uh, and, um, and we'll get some people to buy it for you. Are you busy after an earthquake? Like you have to do the rounds and everything like you have an earthquake. Yeah.

So there's an earthquake and you're like, Oh God, I'm going to be flat out tomorrow. Yeah. When a big one happens in LA, I'll be pretty visible in the press and I'll be coordinating all kinds of researchers. So yeah, it'll be a busy time.

It's the same as me. Whenever a comedian gets in trouble for saying something stupid, people ring me up like you've said stupid things. Do you think people should be allowed to say stupid things? I don't know. The link to the Samueli school is Samueli.ucla.edu. If you want to check that out. I just saw Christine put it in the chat. Well, thanks for being on the podcast, Jonathan.

We appreciate it here. Look, ladies and gentlemen, if you're ever at a party and someone says the earthquake is not a Richter scale, it's called a seismology thing. We really learned a lot this podcast. You want to try again? No. Okay.

Should I try it again? I don't know about that. I'm just here for a drink. That's true. I probably wouldn't say I don't know about that. Yeah, you just go, what are you talking about? I'm just trying to have a fun time. Why are you in my house?

Okay. Good night, Australia.